WEBVTT - The July 20th Plot to Assassinate Hitler 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.680 dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.400 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.800 and this is stuff you should know about Smoking Hitler, 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:29.440 Smoking Hitler. Well, you know what's funny is uh, what's 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:34.640 funny about? Assessin? Well? I I got this idea because 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.919 I had listened to the recent friendly Fire podcast episode 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.560 on Valkyrie. Boy, you're just going all out on friendly Fire, 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:46.080 aren't it? Like it? Okay, it's good show, um, and 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.360 there aren't many people that know more about history than 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.600 John Roderick, Like, it's really impressive to hear that guy 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:53.599 go off like from the dome. No, I know, it's 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.400 got quite a brain. And hey, Ben Harrison's no slouch either. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.880 He's a little bit of a slouch. He's listening to this, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.480 so I gotta rib him. But John at one point 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.240 in the show was like, I can't like this. You'll 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.640 see in the show it's such a convoluted plan to 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.360 blow up Hitler. And he's just like, I can't believe 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.920 in all those years they couldn't get one one person 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.520 to walk up and shoot him in the head. I 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.360 saw that to um in a couple of places, and 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.760 it is very vexing and perplexing. Then not one person 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.400 said and apparently people agreed to suicide missions. A lot 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.400 of people wanted to kill him, but personally they just 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:38.800 didn't go. They didn't go. But that what sound? Is 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.480 it like a luger make? I don't even know. I 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.840 don't know. I can tell you what a dye in 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.120 German sounds like when they're falling off a building. Oh 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.480 is that the vilhelm screen? Well, we wouldn't put the 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:55.560 right one in anyway, so I forget. Yeah, anyway, it 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.920 just seems odd to me that because there were I 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:04.320 think fifteen or sixteen total plots to assassinate Hitler, and 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.360 I don't know if there wasn't a single one that 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.280 was like you take a gun, walk up behind him 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.600 at his desk and shoot him in the head, and 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.200 then shoot yourself because it's going to go really badly 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.760 for you, right, Yeah, I mean they were all suicide missions, mostly, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:22.360 not all of them, apparently. So Um, I was surprised 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.400 because I didn't realize. I think I had heard, like, 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.000 you know, people had wanted to assassinate Hitler or something 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.120 like that. I didn't realize that Hitler was about his 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:34.440 charmed human being as far as surviving assassination tempts goes 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.119 as they come. Um, just didn't realize that, would you say, 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:43.120 like maybe fifteen sixteen plus this one? Okay? Um? And 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.000 I mean like there were close calls, like somewhere you know, 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.000 he just missed his assassination by a couple of minutes 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.160 or a bomb didn't go off even though it was 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.040 fully functioning and should have been blown his plane out 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.560 of the sky. That's the contro bottle or whatever. So 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.200 it's not like he he went on as their fear 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.040 for lack of trying. It just didn't happen for some reason. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.240 The assassination attempt that that most people think of when 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.639 they think of attempts to assassinate Hitler, especially if you're 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.480 a fan of Tom Cruise, especially if you're a fan 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:23.000 of Tom Cruise dressed as a pirate. Um is uh 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.280 the the Operation Valkyrie that we're about to talk about. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.680 I watched that again today, and what do you think 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.000 of this time around? It's good. I like it. I 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.280 like the Cruise. It's the accent things weird, But you 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.880 just gotta get past it. He uh I saw. There 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.600 was like a pretty big outcry from Germans when he 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:41.560 was cast, when it was announced that he was going 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:46.760 to play class fund Stauffenberg because Klass von Stauffenbergers will 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.840 see as a national hero of Germany, and Germany does 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.360 not take kindly to scientology. It's yeah. They were not 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.720 really happy when Tom Cruises cast to play their national hero. 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:06.920 They said, crew, that was great. Thanks, so July, yes, like, 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.640 do you want to do the whole plan right here? 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.280 Like we're working this out right, okay, alright, alright, new 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.039 new new plans or just like what happened. I've got it, 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.000 I've got it. We're gonna take a totally different tech 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.240 you already okay. So this Operation Valkyrie that we're talking about, 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.400 it took place. It was a called the July twenty 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.080 plot is what it's called. But the operation was actually 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.279 something larger than that, and as we'll see, it entailed 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.880 a lot of people. And these were like high ranking 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:41.320 military officials, some of the highest military officials in the 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:46.240 German military, the Wehrmacht, saying that right, we're involved in 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.640 a plot to assassinate Hitler, and uh, ed put this 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.520 together for us any points out like, there are a 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.280 lot of reasons people had to want to assassinate Hitler. 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.560 There was people who said, you know, uh, we're what 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.400 we're doing with the the extermination of the Jews and 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.760 other people is is like completely unconscionable and this needs 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.520 to have an end put to it. I think that 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.840 was mostly Kenneth branna Right, if we're going movie style, okay, um, 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.039 like in real life though he supposedly was the one that, yeah, 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.320 I had the true conscience of what they were doing 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.320 was wrong. Who who did he play? Trust Trust Cow? 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.920 He's it's a tough one, Henning von Trush Cow Trust 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.200 t r E s c. K Ow. I'm pretty sure 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.520 I got that right, that that was the Kenneth Branno character, 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.120 and he genuinely was opposed to how they were doing 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.960 things right, Okay, So um, there was at least one 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.120 person who felt that way, but he was very much 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.719 in the minority. Yeah. There were another group of people 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.520 who thought, well, you know, these Nazis, they're kind of upstarts. 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.720 They're like nouveaux reiche politically speaking. Yeah, um, and they 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:57.880 don't really care about the old Guard well, I'm part 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.760 of the old Guard. My family landed gentry in Germany. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.599 We have a nice tradition going back hundreds of years, 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.320 and now these Nazi up starts are moving my family 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.279 out of power. We're no longer in the elite, and 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.080 I don't like that. That's another reason why people wanted 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.360 to get Yeah, and I think they were, like the 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.520 majority of the people in this plot were those people 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:26.360 like they weren't idealist democratic people who wanted like they 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.560 were just trying to protect their heritage. Some of them 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.599 were anti fascists, not all of them, but then there 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.239 was definitely a through line that a lot of people 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.560 bought into and may have even been a major motivator 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.280 for a lot of people to um. By the time 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:47.640 July rolled around, it was very clear to most people, 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.839 uh inside of Germany and out who were paying attention 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.640 and who knew everything, that Germany could not win World 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.920 War two any longer. After Normandy it was dead exactly 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.000 the water Yeah, um, when once we made it to Normandy, 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.359 it was it was over. And not only have we 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.760 made it to Normandy by this time, but we we 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:07.839 had supplies coming in, we had more and more troops 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.520 coming in we were overrunning Europe. Now Europe was was ours. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.960 Plus the Russians were moving their way westward from the east. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.480 Not a good position for Germany to be in between 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.280 the Allies and the Russians. Um Italy, Mussolini had been overthrown. 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.080 So Italy was now this soft underbelly, as Winston Churchill 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.560 put it, that could be attacked from Africa. Was he 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.760 gone by this time? He was a puppet dictator in 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.840 the northern part of Italy that was protected by Germany 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.560 because the most of Italy was gone. The movie may 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.880 be wrong, but the movie they were like Mussolini's coming 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.160 for lunch or whatever. That's true. But he had lost 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.920 most of Italy by this time. But that left Italy 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.840 exposed to attack from Africa, and Africa had just recently 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.920 been lost by Rommel. So Germany was in no position 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.680 to win World War two. So there were a lot 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.120 of people, high ranking officials in the military. You said, Okay, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.920 before they actually make their way into Germany, that's a 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.560 point of no return. Maybe we can get it a 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:13.200 hitler and negotiate a peace that that keeps our republic intact. Yeah, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.280 and supposedly had even spoken to some of the Allied 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:21.280 leaders like, hey, let's just say Hitler was not around, 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.600 just just hypothetically, what would that look like for for 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:26.680 the rest of us, Like, how could we come out 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.040 of this? Okay? Yeah, uh, no one knows truly how. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.960 I don't know how far down the road those talks went, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.080 but it had been mentioned. So the supposedly their point 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.079 of contact was Alan Dulles, one of the Dullest brothers 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:44.559 who would later overthrow the um government of Guatemala, among 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.440 other things, as CIA director the airport Dulless. Yea interesting, 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.400 same dulless As, But that's who they were talking to. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.000 He was like the CIA or the OSS station chief 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.680 of Switzerland at the time. But I think the Germans 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.040 were like, Okay, we will do this and we'll get 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.120 rid of Hitler and we want to remain, you know, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.040 keep Germany intact. But the Russians cannot be part of 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.440 the peace talks. We've done some things that they're not 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:10.640 very happy about and they can't be part of it. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.240 And the Allies wouldn't wouldn't take that off of the table. Yeah, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:16.560 because if the Russians were in there negotiating, it would 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.400 be a much different story for Germany. So all of 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.079 these guys knew that Germany could not win the war. Hitler, 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.640 who was running the show, still had very different ideas. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.560 His idea of fighting this war was, We're going to 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.520 fight this war until the very last German is killed. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.960 Every man, woman, child who can pick up a gun 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.120 is going to fight to the death against these invaders 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.320 of our homeland. And and I'm totally out of my 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.800 mind and I'm taking the whole country down with me. Yeah. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.160 And in the in the Vulkyrie film, they even say, like, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.360 you know, with the Normandy going on and what's happened there, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.319 and he's just sort of like, well, I don't know 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.720 what you're talking about. Everything's going great, right, give me 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.640 some more crystal meth? Did he do that? That's the 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.480 legend that that crystal meth was invented by Nazi scientists, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.880 and that upper echelon Nazis were all into that big time. Man, 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.080 there's so many, like of all the people in history, 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.040 like so many things that are horrific and true, and 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.720 then so many weird stories from like Nazi treasure hunting 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.320 to crystal meth addiction. It's just crazy. I wrote a 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.080 really interesting new Yorker article about people who treasure hunt 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.240 for Nazi treasures in Poland in the mountains of Poland. 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.320 And the thing that gives gravity to these claims is 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.400 that there really are enormous tunnels in the mountains in 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.360 Poland that you could fit train folds of gold in 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.839 and um, they think that they actually might have something 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:48.040 to them, even though that's supposedly a hoax, the Nazi 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:52.280 gold thing, supposedly, but again, they have these tunnel networks 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.720 that are like, really there. It's not like there are 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.400 the tunnels themselves are urban legend. It's just these tunnel 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.160 networks are so expansive that no one's ever app them all, gotcha, 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.559 But they do exist. So there may be a gold 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.760 rich poss wing that no one's ever found. Yeah. Interesting, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.520 So wow, that was a lot. Do you want to 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.320 take a break and then get into it, tomorre you're 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.960 ready to keep plugging along? No, man, let's uh, let's 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:42.800 talk about killing Hitler right after this. So Hitler. Uh. 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.320 Hitler had done a lot up into this point to 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.839 have total control over Germany and over the state, whether 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.960 it was controlling what news went out to, having people 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:58.720 swear oaths of loyalty to him as a person, not Germany, 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.439 like it really at me today, the Hyle Hitler thing 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:07.360 like soldiers saying Hyle Hitler to one another when Hitler 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.400 is not around. It's not like I would understand if like, well, 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.720 sure you'd do that to Hitler. But he was having 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.520 them do that to everyone. It wasn't like long lived Germany. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.080 It was Heil Hitler. And they're like, he's nowhere near here, 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:20.760 are you realize? You're like, yeah, but we gotta say 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.200 this otherwise we're toasted. And I think over time, like 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.720 even when you are forced to do that or kind 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.600 of brainwashed into doing there or whatever, you kind of 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:35.240 adopt that that sense, like like the eagerness. You know 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:41.320 it's weird. It's because it's just it's bizarre. It is bizarre. Um. 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:43.680 The other thing we should mention really quickly too, before 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.959 we move on, is the the sipping hoft uh. This 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:52.080 was an ancient Middle Aged blood law basically where they 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.480 say from Germany, where they were like, you know, if 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.080 you're guilty of a crime, your whole family is. And 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:02.720 as you will see, Project Valkyrie was reason enough for 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:07.080 for Himler to dust that off. Say, remember that ancient custom. Well, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.199 we're just gonna do it here. Yeah, it wasn't even 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.280 further back than that to like the second century BC. 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.280 From what I saw, it's crazy. So it's basically the 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.360 idea is, if you are a trader, that means you 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.880 have traitorous blood in you, and since you've passed your 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:26.439 bloodline along, then all of the members of your family 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.600 must have that same traitor as blood. So the whole 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.719 family has to be wiped out. That's the idea behind it. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.320 It's not clear if Himler just made this up or whatever, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.440 but there was that threat of of if you do 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.240 something to um put the family into to to put 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.720 yourself in jeopardy, you put the whole family in jeopardy. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:49.160 People like basically spying on not just their neighbors, but 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.880 on their own family members. Yeah, and if you want 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:53.880 to hatch a plot to kill Hitler, then that puts 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.480 your family at risk exactly, not just yourself. Yeah. And 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.320 then plus also um the the it's you can't really 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:04.040 discount the that he really thoroughly controlled the media. So 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.880 if there was a resistance, if there were people who 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.560 did great acts of protest or whatever, it would just 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.240 be lost. It would not be reported on, and so 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.480 whatever spark they created couldn't grow into a flame. So 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:20.000 there was a tremendous amount of control. And even today 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.280 historians are still debating how complicit the actual people of 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.960 Germany were and how much they were coerced into following Hitler. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.760 It's a it's a real bone of contention among historians today. Well, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.120 I'm sure it was a very mixed bag of allegiances 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.440 and loyalties and like what people truly believed in what 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.240 they were, you know, they weren't getting the real information anyway, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.960 you know exactly. And then that on top of the 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:46.520 whole family is going to get wiped out if you 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.440 do something could keep people in line, alright. So the 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:54.040 Operation Valkyrie itself, like we said, killing Hitler was a 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.480 small part, well not a small part, a major part, 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:02.920 But Operation Valkyrie itself was a larger plan uh to 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:08.600 rest control of of the German government basically from the 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.720 Nazis and the s S. Yeah, it was an existing 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.960 operation that got co opted and made a part of 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:17.280 the plot to assassinate Hitler because they knew that just 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.320 killing Hitler wasn't enough, because someone I guess Hitler would 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.800 have just stepped in this place. Yeah, there's evidence that 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.160 Himmler knew about this plot and basically letting it happen 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:32.040 so he could do of course. So uh, here was 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.760 a deal. Operation Valkyrie was a contingency plan and this 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:40.720 was set up with Hitler's signature, uh, to control the 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:45.200 reserve army of Germany. So there was basically I couldn't 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:51.080 tell if it was like our reserves over here. I 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:55.560 don't know. It wasn't quite like that because they maybe 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.360 like the National Guard, you think, yeah, because it says 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.840 that they were called up to um to support the front, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.600 and you call up the National Guards sometimes here in 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.000 the United States, right, Yeah, I think it was. It 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.920 would be like, well, they were the remnants of the 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.000 German army that was left back. They were the army 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.200 that was still in Germany at this point. They weren't 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.720 out fighting and on the front lines, although they could 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.160 be called. They were there to defend Germany. Yeah, exactly. So, Uh, 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.600 if the call came through and Operation Valkyrie was enacted, 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:32.080 that basically meant that something's gone wrong, and not necessarily 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.480 the Hitler's dead, but um, something's gone wrong and that 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.400 army needs to mobilize basically and keep it the status 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.160 quo until they hear further. Then there were two people 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:49.080 who were who were authorized to start Operation Valkyrie, which 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.680 was essentially a signal like you said that something's gone 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.480 wrong and the army needs to regain control of the country. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:01.000 Um it was Hitler and Friedrich Frome. It was the army, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:07.560 Reserve Army leader and um if From basically said to 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.000 the Reserve Army Operation Valkyries. In effect, the Reserve Army 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.919 would fight whoever From told them to, which is Tom Wilkinson. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.240 If you're playing at home, man, that guy. He's great, 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.600 great actor. He had this English accent in full effect. Heir, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.120 Tom Cruise is speaking American. It's all over the map. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.440 It's crazy. It was a weird decision. Lots of weird decision. 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:31.399 It was at the time. I mean, have you seen it. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.640 I started to and then stopped. Yeah. Yeah, I thought 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:38.320 it was a good movie. But I'm sure it was. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.359 I don't know. I don't remember what it was, but 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.040 I just couldn't. I know that that Brian Singer, the director, 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.640 made the conscious choice. He was like, I don't want 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.480 everyone doing these bad german accents. Everybody do different weird, 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.720 so just talk how you talk. And it's a little confusing, 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.600 I mean not confusing, because you know they're Germans because 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:01.600 they're wearing those fantastic outfits by Hugo Ball. Is that true? Yes, 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.359 I heard that he was co opted but not didn't 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.439 actually design the uniforms. Uh. I think it's probably like 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:12.320 the Adidas, the Danzler brothers Rember their factory was co 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.080 opted to make torpedoes. I'm pretty sure the same thing happened. 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:21.960 But Hugo Boss's thing was to make the uniforms. Um. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.119 So yeah, I think it's true. I just wondered if 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.199 he actually designed them. That's what I heard. That's what 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.440 Russell Brand says, and by god, there's ever been a 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:35.080 truth teller, it's that guy, so Truscou Kenneth Branda, like 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.200 I was saying, he was the one that was really 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.040 um opposed to the brutality of Nazism, and he's the 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:47.000 one that developed these amendments to Operation Balkyrie for this plan, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.720 which from what I could tell, was basically two speed 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.600 everything up a lot because they had a limited amount 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.520 of time once they killed Hitler to pull this off. 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.760 And I think it was like Operation Valker was supposed 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:00.280 to be six or eight hours, and he was now, 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.040 we need to get this done in like two or three. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.480 So those are the amendments that he created, I think so, 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:06.280 in addition to some other stuff. But I think it 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.280 was speed mainly, all right, which is ironic because it 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.760 actually got slowed down in the in the in the execution. 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.280 Um but the so again, just to restate because it 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.440 is a little confusing, Operation Valkyrie was an existing Nazi 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.119 plan or German Army plan for the Reserve Army the 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.040 National Guard back home in Germany to take control of 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:34.200 the country. Um in in the event Operation Valkyrie was enacted, 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.399 and that could be because there was an uprising in 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.440 a in a concentration camp. It could be that there 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.120 was some sort of revolt that this, whatever it was, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:48.320 it was an official Nazi German military plan that existed 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.880 that got co opted by the assassination plotters to tailor 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.080 it so that they could use it in a conjunction 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.119 with assassinating Hitler and basically trick the Reserve arm Me 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.800 into doing their bidding. And everyone, that's three times now. 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.600 If you don't get it, now, just listen to something else, Okay, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.560 go listen to Friendly Fire. He's talking to me everybody. 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.800 He wants me to stop explaining. Will there be a 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:18.959 fourth time? Okay? So, uh well, I guess we need 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.399 to talk a little bit about Tom Cruise, who was 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.720 sort of the main player in this assassination attempt. Yeah, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:27.199 we gotta talk a lot about him. This is the 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:33.200 guy who was who's become a national um hero in Germany. Yeah, 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.879 and here's a deal like history, and certainly that film 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.040 painted him as a as a hero. I mean, he 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.800 was a tried and true Nazi um up and you know, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:47.320 up to a point where he decided to kill Hitler. 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.240 But he was not some like great guy who was 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.800 always like, no, to think what we're doing is wrong, guys, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.240 we should really rethink this. His brother was his brother 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.440 Barthold Am I pronouncing that correctly b E R T 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.320 h O l D. Yeah. Okay. His brother Bart told 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:06.520 his older brother Um was in this plot too, and 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:12.280 he actually was um tortured and gave a confession. And 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.240 apparently in his confession he said, you know, no, we 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.320 generally agree with what the Nazis are doing. We just 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:23.399 think Hitler is a little too um uh over eager 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.679 over zealous about spilling German blood, uh and trying to 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.199 conquer the world. But everything else we pretty much agree with. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.760 So yeah, these guys were they were Nazis, they were 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.399 just anti Hitler basically. Yeah. So, um, Klaus fin Stauffenberg 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:42.640 had been wounded previously I think in Africa, right, yes, 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.920 under Rammel. Yeah, and was. Um. In fact, that scene 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.840 of the film is really good, that's pretty accurate his 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.920 his There's a bombing and a and a stray thing 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.120 from a plane that he gets like full on all 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.600 over his body, loses his right hand and everything but 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.159 too Inger's and his thumb on his left, loses his 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:07.240 left eye and as basically he's got two functioning fingers 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.400 and a thumb at this point. Yes, not the perfect 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:15.120 person to carry out a very highly technical bomb planting. Yeah, 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:17.840 and that's definitely going to come into play. But apparently 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:22.520 um Stauffenberg, Klaus Staffenberg said, you know enough of this, 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.840 like people losing their nerve, quatro bombs not going off. 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.960 I mean, come on, if you want to done it right, 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.879 just do it yourself. Is basically apparently what his policy was. 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.000 He said, I'll do it, I'll kill Hitler. Yeah, He 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:37.480 never said maybe I should just shoot him in the head. Yeah, 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:41.400 Well he wanted to live, as evidenced by the actual 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.080 plot that they came up with. Well, plus they also 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:49.720 wanted um not wanted they they sort of demanded that 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.160 that Himmler be in the room at the time and 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.600 also be taken out. Otherwise, what's the point, right, So 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:59.119 this July twenty plot that we're working up to was 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.119 actually could have been called like the I think July 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.800 second plot or the July eighth plot. There were like 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.080 a few different attempts that were aborted, and one of 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:14.760 them was because Himmler and Garing I believe or were 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:17.600 meant to be in the room with Hitler and they weren't, 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:21.560 so they called it off. Apparently Klaus Strassburg decided on 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:25.160 his own, he's gonna von Stroffenberg. Straffenberg, I keep playing 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.840 to say Strassburg um Straffenberg decided on his own he's 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:31.159 gonna kill Hitler anyway, And when he went back in 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:33.960 the room to do it after reporting that that Himmler 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.520 and Garing weren't there um to kill Hitler, Hitler had 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.320 just left. The meeting ended early like that. That was 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:42.639 the kind of like luck that Hitler had. Yeah, and 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:44.960 that was played out pretty accurately in the movie. Actually, 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:47.280